


Pawn in the System, Cog in the Game

by LynsFantasy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Technology, Altered Backstory, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Healthy Lance/Lotor (Voltron), Lie Detector, M/M, Mystery, Negotiations, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Season/Series 03, Slow Burn, The Real Shiro is alive, diverges after season 3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-01 06:17:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16279367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynsFantasy/pseuds/LynsFantasy
Summary: It all started when Prince Lotor, whom the paladins hadn't heard from since the fight in the Ulippa system, suddenly called the Castle of Lions, offering news about Shiro and the opportunity for a mutually beneficial trade.If only things had stayed that simple.Now Lance is caught up in a strange and hostile game between Lotor and Haggar, and he's playing his own game with Lotor of trust and mistrust, honesty and deception, and complicated feelings.





	1. Never Make a Deal with a Bard

**Author's Note:**

> A little over a year ago, I posted my first work in the Voltron fandom, an experimental fic called You're Like Me where I intended to play around with the concept and dynamics of Lance and Lotor in a relationship. Since then, I have explored this fandom deeply, and I have learned many things along the way. Now, I am unashamed to say that Lotor is my favorite character and Lancelot is my favorite ship, and I feel that I wasn't doing either of them justice in You're Like Me. So, fueled by salt at the fandom, extreme frustration with the show, and my determination to do better, I have decided to reboot that fic as this. I hope you all enjoy it.

White strips lit up a white ceiling, and textureless, medium-grey walls and a smooth, dark grey floor completed a mind-numbingly monotone hallway, stretching out one way to a T and the other way to a door. Lance sat alone against the wall of the corridor, tipping his head back and staring up at the ceiling in pure boredom. He’d been waiting for… how long now? An hour? It seemed like ages and _ages_ without anything to do. He wondered about the delay – perhaps the governor was speaking to Lotor first? That would make sense, all things considered. Still, that didn’t help Lance feel any better about being told to stay put and wait in a barren hallway without anything to do or even a place to sit except the floor. He’d already tried the door and found that it was locked. Sheer boredom had driven him to try the other hallways, but a guard had spotted him almost right away and dragged him right back here.

He glared at the white ceiling like it was personally responsible for his boredom. He wasn’t a _prisoner_ , exactly, but he was starting to think that he’d prefer being locked up instead of being left here like this. He only had exactly one experience with being locked up in a cell, and he could say with confidence that it was better than this. At least that cell had contained a bed. And hey, the Sanctum probably had even better prisoner accommodations, right? Then again, their response to suspicious persons seemed to be to leave them practically unmonitored in empty hallways, so he wasn’t sure that he could say anything about them with confidence. He honestly didn’t know what to expect from these people.

Finally, a guard came, immediately catching Lance’s attention. “Governor Aelia will speak with you now,” they said simply, and they turned to lead Lance down the corridor.

Standing quickly, Lance paused for only a moment to adjust after sitting for so long before following the guard. Soon, they reached a set of double doors; the guard opened one and stood aside in a gesture clearly indicating that Lance should step in.

“Thanks,” Lance murmured as he stepped past the guard and entered the chamber. By contrast to the dull corridor, this chamber was brightly lit, and Lance had to blink a few times while his eyes adjusted to the change in light.

“Come here,” a woman’s voice called, firm but not unkind. As Lance looked in her direction, he saw that the woman’s appearance matched her voice – middle-aged, professional, and regal, but lacking in any harshness. Her dark brown hair, streaked with grey, was tied up into a bun to keep it out of her face except for where a few strands slipped free, curling around her ears to brush her sharp jawline. Her grey eyes seemed neither cold nor warm, simply unreadably neutral. Her aura of authority indicated just as much as her chair at a separate desk from the large conference table in the center of the chamber – this could be none other than Governor Aelia.

Lance approached, trying to hide his nervousness behind a neutral smile. “Hello, ma’am.” Garrison conditioning compelled him to salute, but he wasn’t sure how Aelia would take that, so he instead inclined his head in a gesture of respect.

Aelia stood and moved to the conference table, sitting at the head of it. “You must be Lance. Here, sit down.” She gestured to the chair to her left, the first chair on the long side of the table.

“Thank you.” Lance sat down, and he was grateful that, in this position, he was neither directly across from nor directly next to the Governor. He was equally grateful for the food set out, which, after receiving a nod from Aelia, he took a few samples of. It was the first food he’d received since coming into the Sanctum, so it had probably been at least a couple of hours since he had last eaten.

“I want you to tell me your whole story: how you ended up traveling in space, how you ended up with Lotor, and how the both of you ended up here at the Sanctum. Do not leave anything out, even something you might assume I already know.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And I hope you understand that lying to me would be a pointless endeavor.”

Lance swallowed back his nervousness. “Yes, I know.”

“Good.” The Governor’s neutral expression was starting to bother Lance. Was she trying to be reassuring? Threatening? Both? Neither? “Now, tell me everything.”

Taking a deep breath, Lance began, “I was a student at the Galaxy Garrison. One night, I snuck up to the rooftop with my teammates, and we saw a Galra ship…”

For a long while, Lance related the basic story of finding the Blue Lion, going into space, forming Voltron, and fighting against the Galra empire. Aelia stopped him to ask questions once in a while, showing special interest in Lance’s information about the Castle of Lions and the two cryogenically frozen ancient Alteans it had held, but she mostly listened silently as Lance rambled on about Voltron, the start of the Coalition, and fighting the Galra.

By the time Lance finished explaining Voltron’s attempt at killing Zarkon, his throat was getting sore from how much he’d been talking. He paused to pour himself some water from the pitcher on the table.

Aelia leaned back, seeming to consider what Lance had told her. “I’m fascinated by your story thus far,” she commented, “but I can’t help but wonder why you have not so much as mentioned your companion.”

Lance snorted, nearly choking on his drink. He swallowed hard, then said, “That’s because I hadn’t even heard of him yet.”

The Governor raised her eyebrow. “I was under the impression that he was the prince of the Galra empire.”

“Yeah, but he was the _exiled_ prince, so he wasn’t anywhere near the command structure until after we nearly killed Zarkon in that attack. With Zarkon in a coma, _someone_ had to take over as Emperor _Pro Tem_ , and there’s where Lotor comes into the picture…”

He explained, as briefly as possible, Voltron’s first encounter with Lotor and the paladin-lion combination change. He didn’t get into the details of the fight on that strange planet with the weird atmosphere, but he figured that information wasn’t particularly relevant anyways.

As he reached the next part of the story, he shifted uncomfortably. “Then, well, we got an Altean distress signal, and… you’re probably not going to believe this…”

Aelia signaled for him to carry on. “As I told you, I will know if you lie. In the same way, I know that you have been telling me the truth this whole time, and I will know whether you continue to do so.”

“Right. Well… we went into another reality.”

The governor raised one eyebrow but said nothing.

“And… there was an Altean empire there. Like the Galra empire – conquering everything and all that – but Alteans.”

Her other eyebrow also went up.

“Their empress was Allura. We didn’t meet her, but we did meet one of the empire’s commanders. She was… her name was…” Lance tried to remember, but the name wouldn’t come to him. “Well, anyways. That was a weird experience. I’m sure you can imagine why.”

Aelia nodded slowly. “Yes, that sounds rather surreal.”

“So, the Alteans of that reality wanted to use the trans-reality comet to make ships that could travel into every reality so that they could take everything over. They kept saying that it was ‘peace,’ that they were just trying to spread ‘peace,’ but they were really just enslaving everyone they saw as lesser.”

“That sounds highly concerning.” Some discomfort showed through Aelia’s neutral expression, but she looked primarily thoughtful.

“Yeah, it was really creepy. So, we stole the comet and took it back to _this_ reality, but then Lotor stole it from us. So, we decided to try to track it down…”

Lance wrapped up his explanation by talking about finding Shiro again, followed by the later fight in the Ulippa system. Although he had only explained the mere background for his actual tale, he already felt exhausted, and he wondered whether he had said too much.

Thankfully, Aelia had not yet lost patience. She picked up one of the pastries and motioned for Lance to do the same. “Take a moment and rest your voice. I suspect that there is much more to come.”

Smiling wryly, Lance picked up a pastry. “Yeah, that’s for sure.” He sighed before taking a bite, wondering how to start in on the next phase of his tale.

They ate in silence for a moment. Once they had both finished their refreshments, Lance forced a smile. “Well, uh, I guess I should continue. You want to know how I ended up with Lotor? That started when we received a call…”

~*~*~*~

As days on the Castle of Lions went, this was one of the more boring ones. Pidge had been focusing harder than ever lately on tracking down her brother. Hunk was working on colored smoke additions for their upcoming aerial demonstrations in their lions to impress the Voltron Coalition. The colored smoke was going to look _awesome_ , but that meant that Hunk was too busy to hang out. Allura was doing complex Coalition diplomacy stuff with Coran’s help. Shiro was probably either with them or in his room, since he’d been weirdly antisocial ever since his disappearance and reunion with the team. The only person whom Shiro willingly talked to besides Allura was Keith, and goodness only knew where their _fearless leader_ was, probably off somewhere with the Blade of Marmora.

Basically… everyone had a job to do except Lance. And he was fine with that, really! He more than made up for it by being their awesome sniper on missions. The sniper, the one who… wasn’t even… in the actual fighting… But it was fine, really! He wasn’t going to get himself worked up over it. He was doing just fine with Red, and no one else seemed to think that he wasn’t particularly useful around here, so he just needed to ignore his doubts. Even if he wished they would explain things to him. Or let him help with diplomacy. Or battle strategy, for that matter. Or…

Maybe hitting the training deck would be a good idea. A few rounds would probably clear his head.

Before Lance could head over there, however, an announcement came over the castle comm system. _“Paladins,”_ the Princess’ voice called, _“report to the Bridge immediately. Do not alert Shiro to this.”_

Lance thought this was odd for multiple reasons, not least of which being that a general call should have definitely alerted Shiro, but he headed up to the Bridge anyways. When he got there, he was mildly surprised to see Keith arguing with Allura. “—iro should be here!”

“No,” Allura said firmly. “I made sure that the intercom in his room was muted before sending out the general call. I don’t like leaving him out of this either, but our contact insisted on it.”

Keith turned away from her, folding his arms and looking more than a little upset, but he said nothing more. Off to the side, Hunk and Pidge shared an uneasy look, and Coran looked back and forth between Allura and Keith nervously.

Hoping to diffuse the tension, Lance cleared his throat, and five pairs of eyes immediately locked onto him. “Hey, sorry I’m late. What did I miss?”

Allura, true to form, recovered quickly. “You haven’t missed anything. We were waiting for everyone to get here before re-opening the communication channel.” She looked down, like she didn’t want to talk about what she needed to say next. “You see, we just had a very unusual call come in, and the caller does not want Shiro to be present, but he permitted me to summon the rest of you.”

“And she won’t tell us who it is,” Hunk added.

“I did _not_ want to stand here and listen to your protests about even considering communication with this person. However, now that everyone’s here, I can tell you…” Allura took a deep breath, then hit the button to reopen the communications channel. “It’s Lotor.”

The viewscreen showed the video feed from the newly reopened connection, featuring an unfamiliar face, and it occurred to Lance that even after months of fighting and then conspicuously _not_ fighting Lotor (and it had been driving Keith insane that the _acting emperor of the Galra_ had vanished), they’d never seen his face before. Lance had seen multiple Galra, and if anyone had asked him to guess what the fearsome Prince Lotor looked like, he probably would have described someone like Sendak: large and intimidating and cat-like. If they had told Lance that, no, the prince did _not_ look like a cat person, he might have guessed something closer to Ulaz’s appearance.

But he never would have guessed… well… a dark elf?! The prince looked like he’d walked straight out of the pages of one of Hunk’s nerdy gaming books! He looked far more human-like than any other aliens they’d met, save for Allura and Coran. In fact, with his pointy ears and movie-star-perfect features, Lotor could have passed for Altean – if he had a normal skin color instead of purple. Were Galra related to Alteans in some way? Lance was no biologist, and he’d never been particularly interested in alien evolution before now, but he was pretty sure this couldn’t be a coincidence, right? Then again, humans and Alteans looked a lot alike, and Lance was pretty sure that there was no relation there…

Glancing around, Lance noted his friends’ reactions. Allura didn’t have any strong reaction, and neither did Coran, but they had probably both been present when the call first came in, so they would have gotten over their first reactions already. Keith just glared at the screen like he wanted to jump through and stab Lotor, which was probably fair, considering that he had been putting himself through hell for months now trying to catch this guy. Hunk and Pidge, on the other hand, seemed to share Lance’s opinion. While Pidge looked bemused, Hunk’s mouth was parted slightly, and his eyebrows were furrowed in an expression of incredulousness. He looked from the screen to Lance and back again, as if trying to ask, _“Are you seeing this, too?”_

“Paladins of Voltron,” Lotor began, and _stars above_ , his voice was smooth, “I come to you with information and an offer. I know that you are unlikely to believe either based purely on my word, so I have come prepared with this.” He held up some inconspicuous-looking cube, like a white-and-cyan recolor of an Olkari cube.

Allura gasped sharply. “Is that—”

“An Altean truth cube, yes.” As the prince spoke, the glowing cyan lines on the cube changed to green, and they only went back to cyan when he finished speaking.

“Where did you get that from?”

“It…” Lotor hesitated, and the lines stayed cyan. “I found it in an archive.” Green.

“In a Galra archive?” Allura asked. “I have a hard time believing that.” The cube turned green, apparently monitoring Allura’s words as well as Lotor’s.

Lotor stiffened. “I would rather not discuss this.” Green. “I do not believe it matters.” Red.

“It seems you do,” Coran pointed out. The cube turned back to green.

“It…” The cube reverted to cyan. “It is not relevant to the current discussion.” Green.

Allura looked like she wanted to argue the point, but finally she crossed her arms and dropped the point. “Fine.” Red. Clearly, it was not fine in Allura’s opinion. “Why did you call us?” Cyan. Lance noted that questions and commands seemed to be neutral, according to the cube.

“I’ve discovered something with rather unsettling implications,” Lotor began, and the cube again turned green. “The witch, Haggar, is capable of some very disturbing things, including, it seems, being able to see and hear through some of her former experimental test subjects.” Still green.

The words took a moment to settle over the paladins. After all, hadn’t Shiro been one of Haggar’s test subjects?

“I believe you can now see why I did not want you to call your former black paladin here,” Lotor continued. “I cannot know for sure, but it is quite likely that Haggar is using him to spy on your operations.” Green.

Keith’s gaze was unfocused, looking down at the control panel rather than at Lotor, but his voice was steady as he asked, “What can we do?”

Lotor pressed his lips together. “The news gets worse. You see, according to my recent discoveries, Haggar cannot do this with just _any_ former test subject. This is only possible with someone she has been able to meddle with the development of, some subject that was raised – or _grown_ – in her lab.” Green.

“Then Shiro should be fine,” Keith asserted.

“Grown…” Pidge pondered this for a moment. “Like… a clone?”

Lotor’s smile was tight and humorless. “Yes, exactly. My generals have located a facility where Haggar has grown many, _many_ clones of your friend. I can only guess at her motives, but this facility was started before he escaped the first time, so it seems that the goal was to create versions of the Champion that could be controlled and made to work for the Galra empire.” Green.

“No…” Keith shook his head and stepped backwards. “No, no, no…”

“Wait…” Lance tried to blink away his confusion. “Let me get this straight. The Shiro we found a few months ago… he’s a _clone_ ? Being controlled by _Haggar_??”

“Yes.” Green.

Allura closed her eyes, visibly trying to regain composure, before she finally said, “I would not have believed you, but I know that no one can trick an Altean truth cube.” She opened her eyes and looked up at Lotor. “But why are you telling us this?”

“I have located the real black paladin, who was apparently captured by means of the witch’s magic during Voltron’s major battle with Zarkon. I know where he is being held.” Green.

Keith’s attention snapped to the screen. “Tell us.”

Lotor raised an eyebrow at him. “Well, that would do neither of us any good, now, would it? I can’t have Voltron attacking a Galra installation with its full power, and you would all benefit from a less risky solution than a full attack on a heavily-armed Galra base or ship.”

“You want a trade,” Allura guessed.

“Precisely.” Lotor leaned back, looking every bit the seasoned negotiator. “Specifically, I want you to give me the clone in exchange for the real black paladin.” Green.

“That’s too easy.” Pidge glared at Lotor in suspicion. “What’s the catch?”

“There is no catch.” Green. “The witch’s spy abilities pose as much of a threat to me as to you, but unlike you, I have the resources necessary for experimentation and research. I intend to find out how exactly this power works so that I can find a way to counter it.” Still green.

“Wait, but…” Hunk frowned in confusion. “If there’s dozens of other clones, why can’t you just use one of those? Why do you need _this_ one?”

“The other clones have not been taken out of stasis and activated yet,” Lotor explained. “And I have no idea whether any of them would bear the connection to Haggar’s power if anyone woke them up but her. The clone in your possession is the only one I know of who almost certainly has this connection.” Green.

“What are you planning to do with him?” Allura asked in a hostile tone.

“If you are asking whether I am like the witch, rest assured, I gain no pleasure from torturing captives or test subjects,” Lotor said dryly, not looking particularly amused at the implied accusation. “I will not knowingly allow any unnecessary harm to come to him.” Green.

Lance was no lawyer, but he was pretty sure he could already see the loopholes in Lotor’s statement. Did the truth cube only detect the truth of the exact words, or could it sense motives? The qualifiers in his statement were making Lance nervous. “How often does, uh, unknowing or necessary harm happen?”

Lotor looked at Lance for a tick or two, appraising him. “Nearly all of my scientific endeavors are focused around non-sentient beings – mere plants and animals – so while I try to ensure that they are cared for properly aside from the experimentation, I am not overly concerned with their long-term wellbeing. The mere handful of times I have dealt with sentient beings – _all_ willing volunteers, I should add – I did my absolute best to ensure their safety and wellbeing, and none of them died as a direct result of experimentation.” Green. “Although I am not sure I would consider a clone to be a _person_ in the same sense as an individual, he is most likely a sentient being, so I will proceed with the same caution.” Still green.

“So, what you’re saying is that you’ve never killed someone for science?” Lance clarified.

“I—” Lotor cut himself off, most likely searching for the right words. “I have technically killed a couple of guards to get into archives for the sake of science. But if you are specifically asking about experiments under my control, yes, I have never killed anyone by means of experimentation.” Green.

Lance glanced at the other paladins, and while they seemed uneasy, no one raised any further questions or complaints.

“If that is all, may we proceed to discussing the details of the exchange?” Lotor prompted.

Allura shared a look with Coran before nodding. “Yes, let’s sort this out.”

The next few minutes were spent discussing the where and how and when of the actual trade itself, and Lance only halfway paid attention. He knew that his input wasn’t needed here, so he instead focused on Lotor, trying to figure him out. Why was he offering such favorable terms to them? After all, if he was their only way of getting Shiro back, he could demand a lot more than just the clone. The only reason Lotor could possibly have for being so nice to them right now was… to gain their trust, maybe? That was the only thing Lance could think of, anyways.

Once the trade was sorted out, the call ended, and Lance turned to Allura. “Do you really think he’s telling the truth?”

“No one can trick an Altean truth cube,” Allura stated, clearly believing this to be definitive fact. “It only detects the veracity of the exact words someone says, so it _is_ possible to use loopholes and technicalities to deceive someone without the truth cube detecting it, but the exact words must be true. And although he admittedly did use some dubious phrasing at a couple of points, I believe that he is at least sincere about the trade itself, which is the important part.”

Lance wanted to protest further, but if Allura was willing to trust Lotor’s offer, he wasn’t going to argue with her.

“What now?” Keith asked. “Should we just lie to… to the clone until it’s time for the trade?”

“I suppose we must.” Allura gave him an apologetic look. “We cannot risk Haggar hearing about this until it’s too late for her to interfere.”

Keith gave a curt nod, clearly not enthused by the idea, and left the room none too peacefully. He didn’t quite _storm_ out, but he certainly wasn’t doing a good job of hiding how much this whole situation disturbed him.

Pidge headed toward the door with Hunk following right behind her. Lance hesitated for a moment, looking at Allura, but she had already turned to Coran, so Lance instead left the room to give them some space. He caught up to Pidge and Hunk in the corridor, and the three of them exchanged uneasy looks.

“Lounge?” Lance suggested.

“Yeah.” Pidge fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. “Sounds good.”

The three of them reached the lounge and all sat down. Hunk looked from Lance to Pidge and back again from where he was sitting between the other two. “This is crazy, right? I mean, I think everything out here is crazy, but this is all extra-crazy, isn’t it?”

Lance nodded. “It’s extra-crazy.” He thought about the call and, more specifically, about Lotor. “That Lotor guy… he looks like something out of one of your nerd books.”

“D&D?” Hunk thought about it for a moment. “I mean, I guess he looks kind of like a Drow Elf. I don’t think they’re usually purple, but they are elves with non-human skin colors, so…”

“I think Tieflings can be purple,” Pidge suggested. “At least, they can in 7th edition.”

Hunk sat up a little straighter. “You play D&D?”

“Yeah, Matt taught me.”

“Oh man, you should have joined our campaign back at the Garrison!”

“I didn’t know about it.” Pidge shrugged. “Plus, I was busy.”

“True…”

The room went quiet for a moment before Lance asked to clarify, “So, he’s either a weird elf or a tea-something?”

Pidge shot him a deadpan glare. “You’re hopeless.”

“Drow Elf or Tiefling,” Hunk gently corrected. “Or both, I guess.” He started to laugh. “Imagine an elf-Tiefling hybrid. That’d be so weird.”

 _Hybrid._ The word stuck out to Lance, though he wasn’t sure why.

“I wonder what class he’d be,” Hunk mused. “We haven’t seen him fight directly…”

“Is there a lawyer class?” Lance joked.

Pidge snorted. “Bards.”

Hunk opened his mouth as if to argue, paused, then leaned back. “Yeah, bards.”

“Aren’t those the ones who play music and stuff?”

“Sure, but they’re also the suave bastards who can charm anyone into anything.”

“What Pidge is trying to say is that they’re highly charismatic,” Hunk explained. “A good – morally Good, I mean – bard mainly uses their charisma to forge alliances and make mutually beneficial deals. A more Neutral or Evil bard, well…”

“Imagine someone who could sweet-talk you into cutting your own foot off.”

“Oh.” Lance sat back. “So, like… the kind of person who could make even his most dangerous enemies agree to a highly suspicious trade with him?”

Hunk frowned uneasily. “Yeah. Like that.”

Pidge glared at a point across the room. “…fuck.”

“But, uh…” Hunk looked like he was scrambling for something positive to say. “He was using that lie-detector thingy, right? So he couldn’t have lied to us.”

“What if he rigged it?”

“Allura seemed to think it was fine,” Lance pointed out, though he secretly had his fair share of his own doubts about this. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Pidge turned away, crossing her arms. “I guess.”

~*~*~*~

“It seems to me that your friends did not trust Lotor.” Aelia was sitting back as she listened to the story, though she now reached for her drink again.

Lance laughed lightly. He hadn’t explained the full details to her – he’d definitely skipped the D&D comparison part of the conversation in the lounge – but he’d given her the gist of what happened. “Yeah, that’s an understatement. I didn’t trust him either, not at the time.”

“Even though he used the truth cube?”

Though his eyes momentarily strayed to a point on the table, Lance looked back up at her. “Yeah, even with that. I mean, that was the first time I’d ever heard of it. I didn’t know back then how reliable it really is.”

Aelia nodded in understanding. “I can see why you wouldn’t trust a technology so new to you that easily. So then, what happened next? If the trade didn’t involve _you_ in any way, how did you end up with Lotor?”

Lance smiled wryly. “So, the next day, mere hours before the set time for the trade, we got another call…”


	2. Like the Veronica + Long Hair + Bullies Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance tells Aelia about the second call the paladins received regarding the trade. Naturally, things can't be as simple as giving up the fake Shiro in exchange for the real one.

Lance was in his room when the princess’ voice came over the intercom, notably tinged with fear. “ _Paladins, come to the bridge immediately._ ”

Without hesitation, Lance grabbed his jacket and ran out of his room, pulling it on while he dashed up to the bridge as quickly as he could. He ran through the doors just behind Pidge and only slightly ahead of Hunk, and he saw that Shiro and Keith were already there with Allura and Coran. A video communication link was up on the viewscreen, and Lance nearly tripped over his own feet as he took in the image there.

The human mind works in strange ways, drawing connections between completely disparate incidents based only on the most obscure common trait. Lance suddenly remembered a day from way back when he was in elementary school. The elementary and middle schools were side-by-side, so all five siblings walked together every weekday morning. As they approached the middle school first, a couple larger, tough-looking boys came up and started harassing Marco and Luis. Veronica, ever the brave leader even back then, stepped between them and told the other boys to leave. They shared a look, and then one of them grabbed her arm to pull her toward them while the other one reached around and grabbed a fistful of her long hair. She cried out, head wrenched back painfully by the grip on her hair, and Marco and Luis immediately stepped in to free her from the bullies while Rachel held Lance back. Though Lance didn’t remember a lot from when he was that young, that image – Veronica crying out in anger and pain while the bullies wrenched her head back – was seared into his memory. It was the reason why Veronica had kept her hair short ever since then, after all.

Truth be told, Lance hadn’t given a lot of thought to the logistics of keeping long hair when one often fought and was generally in hostile situations. He hadn’t thought about the “Veronica and long hair and bullies” incident, as the family called it, in years. But now…

Lotor’s long, silver hair was being pulled back by the grip of a Galra soldier. The same soldier seemed to be holding Lotor’s hands behind his back, and despite the prince’s struggling, he couldn’t get free. Judging by his expression, the soldier was hurting him, though he seemed to be trying to cover his pain with anger as he growled quietly.

As if she couldn’t hear Lotor, Haggar stood calmly next to him, flanked by two druids, and her cold, golden gaze pierced through the viewscreen and filled Lance with a kind of visceral fear he’d rarely felt before. Since her eyes lacked pupils, it was hard to tell which direction she was looking, but if Lance had to guess, he’d say that she was looking at Allura, whose fists were balled up as she glared back with an intensity that could melt steel.

There were a few other Galra in the room, just random soldiers from what Lance could tell, but Lance’s eyes were drawn to the figure in the midst of them. Between and slightly behind Lotor and Haggar, held in place by a couple of the soldiers, stood…

“Shiro!” Lance yelled, and those familiar grey eyes met his. But the entire lower half of Shiro’s face was covered with some sort of mask, so Lance couldn’t even discern his expression, and it seemed that the mask-like thing was preventing him from speaking to them.

Glancing around the room, Lance saw that no one was taking this any better than he was. Keith’s fists were balled up, tension was written in every line of his body, and his glare looked like it could melt through the screen and burn a hole through Haggar. Hunk covered his mouth as he stared, wide-eyed, at Shiro. Pidge’s gaze shifted suspiciously from the Shiro onscreen to the one standing in their midst, and she looked thoroughly disturbed. The Shiro who was with them, the clone, stared at the screen in silent shock. Allura looked the most composed, leveling an icy glare at Haggar, though Lance noticed that she looked a shade or two paler than usual. Only Coran seemed to be looking elsewhere, wincing sympathetically, and Lance followed his gaze back to Lotor.

“Well,” Haggar began, her raspy voice scraping along the already-frayed nerves of everyone listening, “it seems that not only has Lotor betrayed me, but he has also revealed my plans to you. I can’t use a spy against you if you already know that he is one, after all.”

“How did you find out about this?” Allura demanded.

“My druids caught Lotor trying to leave this facility with the Champion.”

“Hold up.” Lance made a “time-out” gesture. “I thought Lotor _already_ had Shiro. We made a deal!”

“I—” Lotor tried to speak, but his voice was strained with pain. “I said… I knew where he was. Didn’t… didn’t say I _had_ him yet.”

“So...?” Pidge directed her suspicious gaze toward him. “What, you wanted to make sure you had a way to get rid of him before you stole him from Haggar?”

“Pr—” He cut off on a sharp inhale, wincing and tipping his head back into the punishing grip on his hair, likely trying to alleviate some of the pain. His expression then settled back into a snarl. “Precisely. Too dangerous to keep him.”

Allura took a deep breath. “Fine.” She resumed glaring at Haggar. “As you pointed out, we know about the clone now. We can lock him up where he cannot be useful to you, or we can make a trade with you.”

Haggar regarded Allura coldly. “Perhaps, but I have no use for the clone. You can kill him for all I care. The Champion is a valuable weapon that I have been hoping to retrieve ever since he escaped. What could you offer me that would be better?”

The paladins looked at one another, unsure how to answer. Voltron was off the table, but what else could they possibly give? Lance’s mind flickered through the possibilities – planets they had freed, the Castle, information on the Coalition or the Blade of Marmora – all completely out of the question.

“What I want,” Haggar finally said, “is the Altean princess.”

“No!” Lance immediately stepped in front of Allura. “We’re not letting you get her!”

A glint of amusement flickered in Haggar’s yellow eyes. “So, you value your princess more than the Champion? That is useful information.”

“W-we don’t trade lives like that!” Hunk protested, moving to stand next to Lance. “We can’t choose between our friends.”

“If the princess is too valuable to you, I could accept a different offer.” Haggar’s cold gaze swept across the paladins, gauging the reaction of each in turn. “Rumors have trickled through the empire that your red paladin is part Galra, yet he doesn’t look Galra at all. I’d like to investigate this phenomenon. Give me the red paladin, and I will give you the Champion.”

Lance’s mind started to race. Clearly, she was asking for Keith, and everyone on the team knew that Keith would give himself up for Shiro in a heartbeat. But if Haggar _wanted_ Keith, it would be a terrible idea to let her have him. Besides, the team needed Keith. He was their connection to the Blade of Marmora, after all. And he’d be able to fly Red once Shiro came back to fly Black, which meant that the one person the team could do without was…

As realization hit, Lance shouted, “I’ll do it! I accept!”

All eyes turned to Lance, and everyone gave him looks of apprehension and confusion. Hunk grabbed his arm while Keith stepped forward to put himself between Lance and the screen. Allura opened her mouth to protest, reaching toward him as well, but Lance stepped free from everyone and marched right up to the screen, looking Haggar right in her unnaturally yellow eyes. “I’m the red paladin,” he declared. Years of bluffing to get out of trouble had taught him how to lie, and he now tapped into that skill to get himself _into_ trouble. “I’m the one you’re looking for. I’m part Galra. And if this is the only way to free Shiro, I accept.”

“No!”

“Wait.”

“Lance, don’t—”

Protests rose from the other paladins, but Lance stood his ground. He wasn’t going to let them stop him.

Haggar smiled cruelly at him. “I see. Then we have a deal.”

“Lance is not authorized to make decisions for the entire team,” Allura said quickly, stepping up next to Lance and putting a hand on his shoulder to pull him slightly back. “We need a moment to discuss this among ourselves before we can accept your terms.”

“Discuss all you like, but if you close the line, you can consider our deal off. I will move the Champion to a more secure facility, and you will never see him again.”

Allura drew herself up tall and proud. “If you want the red paladin, you will have to give us a moment to mute the communication so that we can talk. We make our decisions together, and we cannot hold an open discussion with you watching and listening. Just mute the channel for a few doboshes while we discuss.”

“Yeah!” a new, strangely chipper and feminine voice chimed from the Galra side of the communication. An alien with reddish-orange skin materialized behind Haggar and brought the tip of a dagger up under her chin, just barely piercing the skin and allowing Altean-red blood to trickle out slowly. Haggar tried to dematerialize, but the alien girl had some sort of electric device in her other hand, and she administered a strong current to Haggar’s form, which seemed to prevent her from getting away. “Let’s take a moment to _talk_ , shall we?” She sounded all too gleeful, watching Haggar squirm in her grip.

Shouts rose, and three more figures entered the room. Then, several things happened almost at once. A relatively short, blue-skinned humanoid leveled two guns at the Galra soldiers, while a hooded figure with a… cat? …suddenly darted toward the druids. Meanwhile, a large blue-skinned Galra(?) woman used her bare fist to hit the Galra soldier holding Lotor on the head, and the soldier immediately crumpled, allowing Lotor to pull free. Lotor pulled two daggers out of seemingly nowhere and turned on Haggar. Suddenly, the line cut out completely, leaving the shocked paladins without any idea what was happening.

“Those were the ones we fought in the Ulippa system,” Keith said quietly.

“I thought I recognized them!” Pidge exclaimed. “They’re working for Lotor, right? He must have called them in as back-up.”

“You mean when we were looking for the comet?” Lance asked.

“Oh, _oh_ , yeah, I remember them!” Hunk’s eyes went wide. “They were so scary.”

Allura stared out the viewport where the communication screen had been. “Lotor and his troops are fighting against Haggar… Galra fighting Galra…”

“Now’s our chance,” Keith said suddenly. Everyone else’s eyes snapped to him, but he didn’t look intimidated by the attention. “If we go in now while they’re busy fighting each other, we can get Shiro back.”

Lance shot him a dubious look. “Do we even know where they are?”

“I can trace the signal back to its source,” Pidge said confidently. Then, she frowned. “Probably. If the call cut out completely—”

“It did,” Allura verified.

“—then we’re going to have a harder time of that.”

Hunk also frowned, looking at the communication array thoughtfully. “I suppose, depending on the Castle system records, we could maybe… hmm.”

“It’s not really going to be a sneak attack if we take half an hour just to track them down,” Lance pointed out.

“And—and didn’t Lotor say something yesterday about Shiro being held in some kind of base?” Hunk added. “It’s probably crawling with soldiers!”

Pidge’s frown deepened. “Technically, he said ‘installation,’ but yeah, we’re going to have trouble. We have Voltron, but if we just destroy everything, we won’t be able to pull Shiro out of there.”

Keith had looked like he wanted to argue, but at Pidge’s last statement, he crossed his arms and leaned back. Pidge had a good point, after all. They couldn’t rescue Shiro if they got him killed in the process.

Allura sighed deeply, tearing her eyes away from the screen. “I suppose we should talk with our allies about this. If an immediate attack will not work, we should plan for a coordinated assault.”

“We can’t wait,” Keith protested. “Haggar said that she was going to move Shiro somewhere else.”

“We should still—”

“The Blade of Marmora doesn’t believe in rescue missions. They’re not going to help us.”

“We _need_ a plan of attack,” Allura said firmly, “and we can ask the Coalition for help. We won’t delay long, but we can’t just rush in there.”

“I think… I think I need to go,” the clone Shiro said softly, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “If I’m some kind of spy, I—I shouldn’t be listening to this.”

Silence fell over the room and remained for a few ticks as the paladins looked at each other uneasily. Then, from off to the side, Coran stepped in closer. “I’ll take you somewhere secure where you won’t need to worry about that.” He placed a hand on Sh—the clone’s shoulder and began to guide him out of the room.

Just then, the viewscreen showed an alert for an incoming communication line from an unknown source. Allura’s expression turned bitter, but she opened the line, revealing the same room they had seen before, though it was now conspicuously missing a few occupants. Lotor and Haggar both stood in front of the screen, neither being held or threatened by someone else, and blue Galra blood was visible both on Lotor’s armor and Haggar’s robes. The space behind them was devoid of Galra guards. On one side of the room stood the two druids, while on the other side, Lotor’s four generals seemed to be shielding Shiro, standing between him and the druids.

~*~*~*~

“Wait,” Aelia interrupted, looking perplexed. “How did that happen?”

“At the time, we didn’t know,” Lance admitted. “They simply said something cryptic about coming to an arrangement with one another and then calling us up again to finish negotiating a deal. I found out later that Narti – one of Lotor’s generals – managed to severely wound one of the two druids, making Haggar and the other druid pause long enough for Lotor to offer them a deal of his own. He gave them valuable information in exchange for them giving him custody of Shiro and the freedom to negotiate and carry out the trade with us.”

“I see.” The governor seemed to consider this for a moment. “Do you know what that information was?”

Lance shook his head. “Not really. When Lotor was recounting his side to me later, he left out that detail, probably because it didn’t really concern me.”

“I suppose that makes sense. Carry on.”

“Right. As I was saying…”

~*~*~*~

“… Therefore, I firmly believe that there is a way for everyone to get what they want here,” Lotor said confidently. He gestured with his left hand, the hand closer to Haggar, while his right hand remained at his hip, shielded from her sight. Strangely, his right hand was in an unnatural position. His hand closed tightly but without his fingers curled in like a fist, and his thumb sticking up slightly, like he was trying to signal something. “You can have the real black paladin, I can have the clone for my own experimentation purposes, and—” The signal shape his right hand was making suddenly changed into a different form, with the tips of his claws pressing into the pad of his own thumb. “—Haggar can have the red paladin, since he so eagerly volunteered.”

Lance hesitated. Obviously, the idea of handing himself over to Haggar was an unpleasant prospect, especially after discussing the possibility of being able to fight back, but he knew that this was most likely the quickest and easiest way. “Fine. I’ll do it,” he said before any of the other paladins could protest.

Allura, of course, protested anyway. “Lance, we’ll find another solution, we don’t need—”

“It’s now or never,” Haggar threatened, her raspy voice grating once again across all those who were listening. “If you refuse my generous offer, you can expect to never see your precious Champion again.”

“Princess, Red Paladin, look at me.” Once Lotor had not only Allura’s and Lance’s attention, but also the attention of everyone else in the room, he shifted his right hand into the shape of the first signal and said, “This is the best solution. If the red paladin hands himself and the clone over to me, I promise you that I will make sure that you receive the black paladin, safe and unharmed.” Then, yet again, he shifted his right hand to the other signal. “After that, I will then hand the red paladin over to Haggar for her to do with as she pleases.”

Lance looked over to Allura, who seemed to be looking carefully at the hand signals Lotor was giving. “I need a moment to confer with the other paladins,” she said, her tone measured and even.

“No. You cannot—”

“Of course,” Lotor granted, interrupting Haggar. “Take as much time as you need.”

“Thank you.” Allura immediately muted and minimized the communications screen before turning to the others.

“Those hand signals,” Lance began, “what did they mean?”

Allura hesitated for a moment before explaining, “They were the intergalactic sign language signs for the colors green and red. Lotor showed the sign for green when talking about most of the details of the trade, but he switched to the sign for red when he was referring to giving Lance over to Haggar.”

Pidge adjusted her glasses, which was one of her usual signs that she was thinking hard on the issue at hand. “He must have been trying to imitate the Altean truth cube, indicating to us when he was telling the truth and when he was lying.”

“So…” Lance put his head in his hands, trying to wrap his mind around this. “So, he was lying when he said he’d hand me over to Haggar? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“It appears so,” Allura confirmed. “Or, at least, it seems that’s what he was trying to convey.”

“But he wasn’t using the truth cube.” Keith stepped forward, looking altogether displeased by the entire situation. “How do we know that he’s not using the signals to trick us?”

Allura shifted uncomfortably. “We don’t know. Even if he was using a truth cube, it cannot detect anything other than the spoken word.”

“Then we can’t trust him. We should attack and retrieve Shiro immediately.”

“I-I hate to interrupt,” Hunk tentatively interrupted, “but weren’t we just fighting about whether we could do that? And our one advantage was that Haggar was busy fighting Lotor, but now they seem to be on the same side.”

“Lotor’s _pretending_ to be on her side,” Allura pointed out. “But yes, that does remove our advantage, and without some kind of support, we would likely not succeed.”

“Then the trade is our only option, right?” Lance felt nervous, but he tried not to show it, forcing himself to stand up straight and tall. “I’ll hand myself over, you guys will get Shiro back, and everything will be okay.”

“But what about you?” Hunk stepped closer to Lance, hovering just a couple of feet away, as if unsure whether to close the distance or not.

“If Lotor’s lying about handing me over to Haggar, I should be fine,” he replied with a confidence that belied his true feelings on the matter.

Keith shot him an incredulous look. “He could be lying about lying—”

“Haggar may force his hand regardless of what he plans to do,” Allura added.

Pidge crossed her arms. “Or he might keep you for himself.”

Sh—the clone’s quiet voice drifted over to the arguing group. “You should at least trade me away. I’m nothing but a liability, and you need the real Shiro back.”

Lance didn’t want to reinforce the clone Shiro’s opinion of himself, but he was saying exactly what Lance was thinking about _himself_ , and this was the perfect backing Lance needed to convince them. “We need to get Shiro out of there. Once we have the real Shiro back, he’ll be able to pilot the Black Lion.” He looked at Keith meaningfully, hoping that Keith would remember their previous conversation.

Keith’s eyes narrowed. He definitely remembered. “Then I should go. I’m the one they’re looking for. And with Shiro back to pilot Black, you guys won’t need me.”

“Red never rejected you,” Lance countered. “You’ll be able to fly him just fine. And if Haggar wants _you_ , then the last thing we should do is give _you_ over to her, right? Even if she does get me, she’s going to be really disappointed when she finds out I’m just human.”

“Shiro, my dad, and Matt are all human,” Pidge interjected. “The Galra apparently found plenty of uses for them.”

“But like…” Lance sighed, trying to figure out how to get his point across.

Thankfully, Allura interjected. “Haggar initially asked for me because she knows that I possess great abilities with Quintessence and druidic magic. She saw these abilities in person when I fought with her while we were trying to take Zarkon down directly. If she’s willing to settle for the ‘red paladin’ because she knows that he’s supposedly half-Galra, she must think that having a half-Galra, half-human to experiment on would be nearly as valuable as having _me_ , or at least more valuable than keeping Shiro.”

“Exactly!”

“I say that we should take the offer,” Allura continued. The other paladins began to protest, but Allura held up a hand to stop them. “We’ll retrieve him from Lotor’s hands. Either we’ll find a way to double-cross him and keep Lance for ourselves while getting Shiro back, or we’ll rescue Lance immediately afterwards.” She offered Lance a small smile. “Of course, we would never abandon one of our own.”

Keith looked skeptical. “Won’t Lotor be expecting that?”

“Even if he has a way to counter us, we have Voltron.”

“But we have to have at least five of us for that,” Hunk pointed out. “If something goes wrong and we lose both Lance _and_ Shiro, we won’t have Voltron.”

Lance waved his arms to bring everyone’s attention back to him. “Guys! You’re missing the obvious answer here. If Lotor really is lying about handing me over to Haggar, that means that I’ll be on _Lotor’s_ ship, not a big, bad Galra base, right? And besides, what’s he going to do with me? Try to recruit me to his side like all his other half-Galra soldiers?” He laughed at how ridiculous that sounded, especially saying it out loud. “Even if he’s planning to keep me, I’m sure I can be annoying enough to make him want to give me back to you guys.”

“Like The Ransom of Red Chief,” clone-Shiro added softly.

“Like… what?”

“It’s an old story about—never mind.”

“Uh…” Lance gave him a questioning look, but clone-Shiro didn’t clarify, so he continued. “Okay, well, as I was saying, he’ll probably give me back, right? And if not, you can attack Lotor’s ship.”

Pidge raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Like we’ve had a lot of luck with that in the past.”

“You know what I mean!”

“Lance does have a good point,” Allura affirmed with a nod. “It seems likely that this will work out in our favor, and if not, we can almost certainly retrieve him. Even if, by some misfortune, he ends up in Haggar’s hands, we would simply be back in the same situation we are in now.”

Keith, Hunk, and Pidge all looked uneasy, but nobody seemed to have anything to say to that.

“Then it’s settled?” Allura looked at each of them one more time before nodding with satisfaction. “Good.” She reopened the communications channel.

Lotor and Haggar reappeared onscreen, and Lotor in particular looked very satisfied. “Do we have a deal?” he asked.

Allura nodded to him, keeping a diplomatically neutral expression. “We do.”

“Excellent. Meet me in the same place at the same time as we previously discussed.” Lotor allowed a smile to grace his face, and Lance couldn’t decide whether it looked nice or malicious. Was there such a thing as a blend of both?

“I understand. We will see you then.”

Then Lotor cut off the communication, and the comm screen disappeared.

~*~*~*~

“I’ll spare you the arguing that followed,” Lance said, laughing lightly. “It wasn’t pretty.”

“I can imagine.” Aelia smiled a little, and Lance noticed that she looked a lot warmer with even a small smile. “Your friends must really care about you.”

Lance’s own smile faltered a little, and his gaze shifted to the side. “I guess so. Anyways, we’d already agreed to the trade, so we definitely weren’t about to change our plans so soon to the trade time. The next couple of vargas passed quickly, and then we arrived at the set meeting place for the trade…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if you look closely, you can see me not-so-subtly throwing shade at myself from one year ago. _"And besides, what’s he going to do with me? Try to recruit me to his side like all his other half-Galra soldiers?"_ Gods of Daibazaal, that was _actually_ the motive I'd had for Lotor's actions in _You're Like Me_.  <*facepalm*>
> 
> Anyways, please feel free to speculate on what you think will happen next! I love seeing everyone's theories, and I'll try to call out people in the notes who get things right when their theories are confirmed. To give you a little hint for what's coming, the planned title for the next chapter is: _Like a Female, Kind of Sadistic Version of Him_. I'll let you figure out whom that's referring to~
> 
> Also FUCK, we only have a month until season 8. Death comes quickly. But hey, on the upside, then I won't have to worry about canon fucking up my various stories anymore! I'll try to update again before it comes out, but considering that this chapter took over a month... ;_; We'll see.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! If you enjoyed it, please comment/leave kudos! Comments especially help keep me motivated to write. If you're interested in the mystery elements and want to make guesses about what will come next, feel free to comment those! I'm always interested in seeing what people are thinking. Again, thank you so much!


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